


A Helping Hand

by VegabondGloria



Series: Of Chaos and Deities [2]
Category: Odin Sphere
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Friendship, Gen, Sheep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-19
Updated: 2016-11-19
Packaged: 2018-08-31 20:28:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8592364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VegabondGloria/pseuds/VegabondGloria
Summary: A little girl accidentally wanders into the realm of the traveling god of storms. Luckily, Cornelius is neither malevolent or mean-spirited.





	

**Author's Note:**

> The Gods and Goddesses AU continues to be developed. I do wanna wander back into something resembling canon...eventually.

Alice knew that she was lost. That was a given. What was even more amazing was how she got lost. Most travelers get lost in dark, scary forests or out at sea in a storm. That was not the case with her.

No, she had gotten lost because she had wandered too far into a wheat field. And oh, what a wheat field it was.

According to the town elder, the wheat field had been gifted to the land by the goddess Elrafenra in reward for saving one of her sons. For that reason, the wheat in this field grew much, much taller than those of ordinary fields. In fact, all the wheat that currently surrounded Alice had the same height as some of the oak trees near her house. The girl was astounded that something like this could exist—then again, in a world where immortal deities had control over all walks of human life, anything was possible.

Alice’s foot became caught on a stick poking out of the ground and she screamed as she toppled over into one of the thicker wheat patches. The stalks helped cushion her fall, but _good gods_ it still hurt. She whined in discomfort as she pushed herself up to her hands and knees, dirt painted on her cheeks and her poor left knee scraped open.

“Maybe I should have listened to father…” She sniffled and rubbed at her watery eyes. When she tried to stand up, she yelped at the pain in her bleeding knee and bit down on her lip. It hurt, but she needed to get home. The sun was beginning to dip slightly in the sky and she didn’t want to be out in the open when the wolves appeared at dusk.

She pushed the long golden stalks to the side over and over again as she limped through the wheat forest. It would be easier to figure out where she was if she could just see over the field, but even a man like her father wouldn’t be able to stand taller than the grain. Alice blinked back tears and trudged on. She was brave and would find a way out of this.

For a moment, the air around her seemed to ripple. Alice paused, small fingers wrapped around a bundle of wheat. Did it get sunnier all of a sudden? When she took a deep whiff, the scent of fresh grass filled her nostrils and she sighed softly. And not only that, but the air smelled _really_ good.

Humans weren’t exactly dogs or wolves, but Alice decided to follow her nose and see where it would take her. It was anything she could do to get out of this field. Still being mindful of her hurt leg, she continued her journey through the wheat, stopping to sniff every now and again. The scent seemed to get stronger whenever she was moving opposite to where the sun was in the sky, so she chose to stay in that direction. The thickness of the wheat didn’t change at all, but some of the stalks began to get shorter and shorter. It still wasn’t enough for her to poke her head over them, though.

Stronger and stronger still…Alice hadn’t quite noticed that the ground beneath her feet was now covered in soft green grass rather than dirt and a few occasional blades. At one point, she put her hand forward through the wheat and found that her hand and wrist were met with open air. Excited, she almost broke into a happy sprint, only to be reminded of her injured knee immediately.

She finally broke through the wheat and was greeted with the sun’s warm rays beating down on her reddened skin. Her blue eyes quickly adjusted to the sudden amount of bright light and her mouth opened.

“Wow…” She said. The verdant green hills beyond were dotted with white daisies and framed by massive snow-capped mountains in the distant beyond. What made her double take, however, was not the size of this realm, but the fact that there were strange little lights floating around that resembled birds.

They flitted and darted through the air while sparkling in the colors of the rainbow. They did not chirp, but they seemed to be making soft noises that reminded Alice of bells. Some of the birds flew near her and she could see that they had beautiful little beaks made of white crystal and left trails of pink and yellow stars behind them.

“ _Who are you, little human_?” She thought she heard one of them say, but the words were blotted out by the bell ring of its voice. Alice gingerly stepped forward into the hills, her previous zest gone and replaced by pure amazement. She took another sniff of the air and found that the scent of grass now intermingled with dew, the daisies, and something else. Berries, perhaps?

Walking up and down the hills was a chore with her hurt leg and she stopped frequently to take breaks. The birds chimed worriedly whenever she sat down, but she gently waved at them and smiled.

“I’m fine,” she would always say before getting up. Sometimes they tugged at the strings holding her hair up in twin tails and she would laugh. “Careful, I can’t do them myself yet!”

At the top of the fifth hill she climbed, she let out several hefty huffs and looked around thoughtfully. “I would have been so stupid not to realize this is one of Sacred Provinces of the gods by now…” her eyes fell upon on the valley that the hill was overlooking and she squinted. Was that a giant cloud moving over the grass and by the river at the bottom?

She watched this “cloud” for some time. Occasionally, parts of it would break off, but they always returned to the main portion eventually. Alice plopped down on the grass and rubbed at her eyes, fatigue from her trip finally getting to her.

“I shouldn’t rest though…” she said, expression falling. “Papa must be so worried by now. But how do I get back?”

She gripped the hem of her chiton as a lump formed in her throat and big wet tears began dripping down her cheeks. “I wanna go home…I miss papa…” She bowed her head and continued to sniffle as soft footsteps approached her. She barely picked up the soft bleating of a lamb that had appeared nearby.

She jolted when a soft silk cloth dabbed at her cheeks and nose and immediately turned her head. A pair of silver eyes was looking at her gently and she thought she saw something blue and incredibly fluffy twitch atop the man’s head. In fact, there was something twitching atop his head and it looked distinctly like _rabbit ears_.

“Don’t cry, little one,” his long sunny hair shifted with his voice. A long, heavy emerald cape weighed on his shoulders and he was dressed in a beautiful red tunic with baggy black pants wrapped in red silk ribbons and boots. The rabbit ears twitched again and Alice shrunk away as a little white mouse appeared on his shoulder.

“A-ah…” The tears were still streaming down Alice’s cheeks, but now she was cowering in fear of the man who held an ornate wooden staff. _He looked exactly like the god depicted in the Temple of Travelers in her village_. Alice immediately threw herself upon the ground in an incredibly deep bow, her voice a horrid mixture of a sob and a plea.

“Please, ‘o great God of Storms Cordenious, I apologize for intruding on your realm! Don’t kill me!”

The long silence between them that followed was broken by the lamb that came over and licked Alice’s hand. The little girl looked up and saw that the man she had called a god was smiling at her.

“Cornelius,” he said. “I know you humans have completely different names that you call us respectfully, but I prefer my true name.”

He gently took her wrists with his gloved hands and brought her back into a sitting position. “Please, let me help you with your scrape. It looks like it hurts terribly.”

Alice was almost speechless as he gently lowered the top of his staff to her knee. “Y-you wish for me to c-call you Cornelius? I-I…I…” she relaxed slowly as a cool feeling washed over her body and her tears ended in their stream. Her eyes widened slightly as she watched her wound close and the scab that had been forming over it vanish. Cornelius hummed pleasantly while his little white lamb rubbed against him. “There, all better. And no scarring, either!”

The girl bent her leg. It was true. There was absolutely no pain in her leg. Her heart was still thumping furiously in her chest, however. “I…I thought gods didn’t do these kinds of favors. Most of the time we leave offerings in the event we need healing or a good harvest and even that isn’t enough sometimes…”

“Believe or not, gods are very much like humans,” Cornelius replied while he settled himself into a cross-legged position. “Sure, we have powers of divine origin, are immortal, and can alter most of the world to our liking, but very often we feel like we don’t deserve the respect we get. We have feelings and we don’t senselessly kill for petty reasons. Well, most of us anyway.” He laughed dryly and tilted his head. “The eyes of one of my statues have seen you before. You’re Alice from Ymirith Village in the Twiddleton Kingdom, right?”

She was very hesitant, but slowly Alice nodded. “Y-yes. My father and I frequently participate in festivals to safeguard the traders that come through the village. My mother was the priestess of another temple—the one to Grindasilda—but she retired so she could marry and have me. She died when I was a baby, though…”

Cornelius nodded, one hand playing with the mouse on his shoulder. A rainbow bird settled on his head. “I still find it somewhat odd you were able to find the Avalerion Valley where I raise my sheep. Most people who travel through the wheat field Elfaria gifted Ymirith Village usually end up back where they started…wait, how did you earn your scrape?”

“I tripped on a stick,” Alice said. Cornelius’s face contorted.

“The Gateway Twig. I should have guessed…” The bird on his head fluttered off and danced in front of Alice’s face. “Ha ha, the Avalerions like you, it seems…”

“That’s what these are?” Alice let the little bird land in her hand. Cornelius laughed.

“Indeed. They’re the spirits of those who died because they drowned. They flock here in the same manner as the lambs that are sacrificed in my name,” he gestured to the giant cloud that was still traveling the valley. “The mice hiding on me are a little different. They just follow me around because they see me as their leader. The Brownie Mice, you know? Fix shoes and do other small tasks for man when they’re asleep at night.”

The Avalerion flew away and Alice looked up at the sky. It was starting to change from blue to shades of orange and pink with the fading light. “I was crying earlier because I want to go home. I don’t want my father to freak out and send a search party after me…”

The grass shifted and Cornelius leaned over her. Alice flinched when he touched the top of her head for a moment and shut her eyes. It felt like something was wrapping around her twin tails…

“There. Open your eyes.”

Alice did as she was told as Cornelius’s hand left her. She looked around slowly, trying to digest where she was.

She kneeling on the grass in front of the little cottage that she and her father lived in. She heard the curtain that acted as the door shift and turned. Her father, a slender man with a balding head of strawberry blond hair, saw her and grinned.

“There you are, Alice! I was wondering when you’d come home! Dinner is almost ready! I managed to snag some cow meat at the market for a very cheap price,” he snorted. “Also, nice ribbons. Who gave them to you?”

“Ribbons?” Alice hands immediately flew up to her head and tugged at the ties holding her hair up. As her hair fell in a small cascade, she found that she was holding two beautiful black silk ribbons with gold fringing. The girl stared at them wide-eyed. For some reason as she looked at them, she thought she heard Cornelius talking in the back of her head.

_If you ever desire to visit one of the Sacred Provinces, you need only wear these ribbons and you will be guided there. You have my protection, always, little Alice._


End file.
